haven't run latest 3dmark yet,but they fixed the stuttering prob i had in a couple of games and i can now run freelancer w full hardware accel. looks like the folks at ati are trying to address the issues people have w /their cards. all in all i'd say these drvs are a vast improvement over the previous releases!

on r3d forums... the cat maker dood said that during testing of cat 3.2 for r300/r350 they noticed some BIG performance gains... but for the final version of 3.2 for the r300 core this will not show... it is there to eliminate stuttering and also improve IQ... which you will notice due to a loss of a few points on some benchmarks (increases on others... but its around same over all level)

with cat 3.3... the performance increases they noticed while testing with the 3.2's on the r350 cards will be released for the users to install... and they are saying the increases are noticeable...

do not expect a miracle doubling of performance...

from r3d forums..

Seems like lately on the forums a developer has spoiled my upcoming surprise about the CATALYST drivers for RADEON. We found some pretty decent performance boosts while we were developing the 9800 drivers. They were scheduled for release with the first set of 9800 drivers (CATALYST 3.2) and we were planning on letting them out for the 9700 cards once we'd tested them thoroughly. Which in this case is CATALYST 3.3

When we launched CATALYST we committed that we would keep adding new features, bug fixes and performance boosts across the range, but we're dead serious about our stability and quality testing and won't compromise that for anything. The CATALYST drivers are the most stable on the market, and that will not change. So for now CATALYST 3.2 will have not have the amazing performance boosts for the 9700, CATALYST 3.3 will! Furthermore since I like you guys so much I will plan on bringing in the CATALYST 3.3 posting day from our typical release cycle, and have it posted as soon possible

However, since the CAT(!) is out of the bag - you now know that 9700 owners will have a great performance boost with the CATALYST 3.3 posting. We're not just number one - we'll now be #1 (RADEON 9800 PRO), #2 (9800) and #3 (9700 PRO).

Click to expand...

take that with a pinch of salt till the real product comes out... but if true... it is not a bad thing @ all...